#but yeah agree with everything else

[daisywords]

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[sweetgreekcreep]

okay so i am obsessed with the magnus archives rn and i love jonmartin, one of my fave queer couples in fiction even. but. and maybe this is like a super inconsequential issue that no one else can relate to. but i was really disappointed for a while when their relationship was confirmed because, based off earlier info from the series, i was very invested in headcanoning Jon as aroace.

and like i do genuinely love jonmartin, they are a lovely couple and all and i was super happy for martin. i think it's great and amazing that there is representation now for biromantic ace people, that is extremely cool!! but i do just feel really disappointed, and honestly like i was led on. it's rare for someone like me to find an aroace character that connects with me and my experience in the specific way that Jon did, and i don't think i would be so upset by that fact that he ends up in a relationship if it wasn't for the fact that moments in earlier seasons really seemed to hint at that sort of thing being something he wouldn't be into at all?

i dunno, maybe there were hints earlier on that Jon wasn't aro so i shouldn't feel so let down, i did miss a lot of details in the first season so i'm rewatching it before i finish s5, but yeah idk. anyone else have a similar experience with this series, or any other? curious

[secondpersonpoetry]

you’ve probably already read it before, but the poem Party by Kim Addonizio really got me tonight. first thought was “oh man. yeah” and then my second thought was “how can i make this about my hockey guys somehow………..”anyway! have a good one! 

oh. oh.

​

[maegalkarven]

I understand what you’re saying about the Chosen of the dead 3, but I think Orin and Gortash are in the same boat. She wasn’t part of the plan at all, she killed or tried to kill her sibling to actively be part of the plan. She wasn’t even Bhaal’s chosen, she forced into that position herself. And if her abuse is grounds for understanding, then I’d say Gortash’s abuse is too. Sold to a devil as a child and tortured for years until he escapes and he grasps at anything to be in control so no one can control / hurt him again. I think he’s a shit person that did shit things, but I do like the character. And I don’t think Orin’s abuse outweighs that of Gortash. Someone/something messed them both up really bad. Bhaal uses Orin’s bloodlust and trauma to get her to do what he wants, Bane uses Gortash’s fear and need for control to get him to do what he wants. Gortash isn’t more/less redeemable because he’s the smart one that put the plan together. Also being Bane’s chosen means if he fails, he’s tortured for eternity. After being tortured for years, I’d imagine he’d do quite literally anything to not end up there again. Either they’re both redeemable or they’re both not in my eyes at least. Ketheric is the most redeemable for sure, he started out with a decent reason at least.

Gortash is my absolute fav actually because of all the layers. He's a fucking onion.

"Trapped in narrative- escaping the narrative"wise Gortash is the only one who actively walks into His.

He could do anything he wanted after escaping Hells. He wasn't exactly chained up or forced to climb the ladder to world domination.

Back then he still had a choice, even if his mind, twisted and turned by being Raphael's captive, didn't want that choice. Because fear is a strong thing, fear can control person in the worst possible ways. I believe Gortash chose "be the worst ever so no one can hurt him again" road and narrative himself.

But he CHOSE it. (The same way, some might argue, Ketheric chose not letting Isobel go, but I think Ketheric simply wasn't able to let her go)

Orin is different because she didn't exactly force herself into the narrative; she had always been in the narrative. She was born into the narrative.

No Bhaalspawn is ever free and no Bhaalspawn is ever not Bhaal's tool. She would inevitably be put on Durge's path because Bhaal loves putting his children against each other and because only One Bhaalspawn can remain. She even tried to play by the rules and challenged Durge, who didn't take her seriously and refused.

Both Orin and Gortash are more tragic than Ketheric because they're broken children who can never let it go.

Gortash is willingly not letting it go while Orin is literally trapped in it (her family, her cult, Father Bhaal in her head).

Ketheric is someone who, if convinced he can actually redeem himself (and if Isobel is alive), would try it.

Orin can only be redeemed if you forcibly take her out of her cult and cut off Bhaal's influence getting DIRECTLY INTO HER MIND. (Bhaal doesn't really have children, only victims)

Orin could easily be on Durge's place, tadpoled and amnesiac. Tbh I feel like her losing memory is the only way she could ever break free because for her where was nothing but Cult and Bhaal. She wasn't allowed anything else. Confronted with the truth about her upbringing, she's horrified; she also had been punished by Bhaal before for disobedience, Bhaal commands her what to do and Bhaal literally strips her of her own will and body because this is what Bhaal does. But if we can claw her out of it, knock her memories away and cut Bhaal off? Then she has a chance.

That's pretty much the only way she can have it (there's a reason Jaheira calls her lost soul).

But Gortash would not want redemption because he was not forced into the path of tyranny. He chose it. He quite likes it up on the top. He's comfortable over there being the worst and selling people and giving explosives to children. The only thing better would be if he had someone to share his kingdom with, someone who gets his genius.

If put on the ground, he will try to climb right back again. He doesn't care about freeing himself because in his mind only on the very top is where he is free. This narrative not his cage, it's his castle, he build it and he's not giving it up.

That's why any attempt to actually "redeem" him would fail because he is Not Interested in That. He is interested in Power and Being the Biggest and Strongest. Also so ppl would love him, idk how he plans to balance it out with his tyranny, but he pretty much requires the gaping audience. Admire him, everyone.

I have several plots of dragging him off his high horse bc the other alternative is his death, but all these plots require things to be the way where he's actively stripped of power in some way or another bc only his own survival will make him somewhat cooperate on an equal level (one particular ally, durge or tav, but more often durge aside). He is not a team player. He pretends he is.

There are, sure, some AU salvations for him, but no redemption because He Genuinely Does Not Regret a Thing, nor will he.

Neither is Orin, but Orin is a broken doll with a god of murder in her head. She lost herself so long time ago no one even recalls it.

Gortash has himself because no one ever had him. He will do anything for his survival and this is why he does not want or require redeeming. Not dying from Netherbrain, that's another story. But he inevitably always serves his own interests first.

Orin fights for the awful love and approval of a cruel god, Ketheric's love for his daughter transcends her death.

Orin and Ketheric's narratives are two sides of the same coin.

"A child craving affection of a cruel parent" VS "parent doing unimaginable horrors bc of the love for their child."

Gortash is out of that particular narrative, his narrative is "There's No One But Me. Only I Matter. No one loved me so I will love me in excess. No one loved me so no one deserves my love".

It is an echo and awful influence of his tragic past, but it's something he actively chooses. He loves that narrative of his, even if it doesn't exactly fulfill him 100% (because it's lonely on the top. Because somewhere deep inside Enver Flymm still lives. Because he can't let Enver Flymm go no matter now pathetic that past self of his is).

His tragedy is of being lonely af and not admitting it/not having anyone to match him in his genius, but not his Tyrant Path. This one he chose for himself.

The thing is, of course gods use their Chosen ones. I think Gortash knows that, and I think he also actively uses Bane. He wears the coat protecting him from the fear and is a chosen of a Dread Lord. That's telling. He doesn't actually serve Bane, he serves himself and aligns himself with Bane for as long as it works for him.

[jonahmagnus]

I really really really wanna be chill w june but i saw so much of myself as a transmasc in john that its kinda hard yknow? I wanna see june as herself! I wanna follow canon and see how june transitions if much of that is shown (i havent read it yet cause ive been BUSY and it sucks)! I just also saw a lot of Me in john and it makes me a lil sad at my own brain because we NEED more canon transfem characters in media! Any media! Like cmon brain!

Why are you telling me this. I dont care

[goldenpinof]

.

[forgottentristan]

Queen of Hearts | Tristan & Edmund

Amira's quarters were stifling dark, draped all in dusky velvets and mired in shadow only dimished here and there by slashes of violent light. He knew why she did it: he'd been a child in Kolchis, but he remembered well and good that such tricks were helpful in convincing the ignorant of the presence of magic -- and in overawing them as well. To him, it was a net. But he inhaled deeply and pressed onwards.

While, when Godfrey stayed at the palace, he quartered in Amira's wing, Tristan's own quarters were amongst his men, something he greatly preferred (to his sister's great annoyance -- she insisted it would send a better statement to maintain his quarters as her brother in her wing rather than truly slumbering in those of the Lord Commander. He suspected she also worried that someone might try something against his life there, but he did not in fact fancy himself any more safe here than there. Still, he did come here each evening to check in with his siblings and nephew on a personal level (for he did the same with his sister and nephew in an offical safety capacity throughout the day). Moving from Amira's inner-rooms and into her presence chamber on his way back out, he spotted Edmund and gave him a weary smile.

"Careful," he began, arching a brow. "She's in one of her moods." Tristan smiled despite himself, shaking his head. He did love his sister, but this was no easy task -- and, even knowing this as she did, she had precious little pity on anyone who dared. It was their failing, if they were not tough enough to handle her.

Amira's moods were many, but this was a particular one about which he always warned her son, if he could: an accusatory mood. Why didn't you do enough? Why weren't you good enough? Why don't you do more? It was no easy thing for a younger brother to hear. It was a still worse thing, he imaged, on a son.

"It just comes out of her frustrations," he added, gently. Edmund, he was sure, knew this as well as he did. But it never hurt to hear. And perhaps he said it as much for himself as for his nephew.

Currently, she was choking on Marian's most recent coups -- in the days that followed, he had no doubt, she'd be crowing upon victories of her own. Their relationship had always had an awful cyclical quality of the kind as the emperor played his families off against each other. But there was something new.

"Edmund..." Tristan bit his lip. "She's speaking of your marriage. The...lady in question does not seem, as yet, to have materialized from the ether, but...your mother appears to believe that it is now time to begin seeking her. And, Edmund...she came to this conclusion after a visit from your father."

Tristan did not know for sure that the Emperor had put that thought to her, but it seemed a strange coincidence if he had not. Whether it were a passing fancy, Tristan did not know. Still, he thought it best to give Edmund a touch of warning before it were sprung upon him, as, he had little doubt, Amira would otherwise do. If it had, indeed, been the Emperor's wish to see his son wed, Amira probably had him halfway down the aisle in her mind, by now.

This, too, would be a source of competition, Tristan did not doubt, between Edmund and Arthur. (At least, Tristan reflected, half-wry, Guin would be spared this particular competition.) There would be a lady, he was sure -- just one, no doubt -- who would be deemed best by their father. Whoever could woo her would, in theory, win. But that was no way to find one's life's partner.

Still, Tristan was in no position to give counsel on this subject. He was sure, now, that he would never wed, despite Amira's irritability on that score. How could he when she was to wed--But that was neither here nor there. This was Edmund's chance.

Yet he found he couldn't be silent, either. Amira, after all, had taken quite another perspective from Tristan's own -- and paid its awful price. Hers was no charmed existence, though she had gotten all she'd ever said she'd wanted, right enough. But Amira would not tell Edmund that; Roderick would not, either. Not even Godfrey would say as much to him. In his way, Godfrey's ambitions were just as ruthless as their sister's. No, it fell to Tristan to say the truth, even if he'd failed at it, in his own way, in the end. He had this, at least, in common with his siblings: he wanted better for Edmund than he'd had, himself: he simply defined that differently.

"Might I just say -- a marriage is more than a chance at the throne, Edmund. Don't forget that, whatever happens. You'll want more in the end. I'm sure of it."

[lewyn-martell]

.

[rxttenfish]

starts hyperventilating as i repeat over and over that i have to make miranda and aaravi my ocs already i have to i have to i have to

[forgottenbrigit]

What Are We Going to Do? | Brigit & Cillian

Brigit had been angry when she'd stormed from the house. Angry with Cassimir for his proposal; angry with Eithne for accepting; angry with her father for having brought him into their lives in the first place. She'd quickly saddled Feidlimid and gone to the very edge of Malconaire -- all the while her mind was formulating a plan.

They would run away. All four of them. She wasn't sure where they would go, yet, or what they would live on, but if Eithne could postpone the wedding until the spring then, perhaps, Brigit would have formulated an escape route. She would use the money she'd been saving to buy back Aoife's harp for their passage. Eithne would object, she knew, but Brigit was certain that she'd eventually come round and then they could all leave Cassimir and Valentina behind for good.

Situated where she was upon a hilltop, she could see the village below and her father's estate far away in the distance. She regretted that they would have to leave all of this, too, but none of it meant anything in comparison to Eithne. Brigit would not condemn her to a life as Cassimir's wife.

Do you really mean to leave them all behind? Brigit had been so absorbed in her own thoughts that Feidlimid's voice in her head caught her off guard. To fend for themselves?

"Nothing else matters anymore."

What do you think your father would have you do?

Brigit was irritated by the question, because she was disappointed with the answer: her father would have had them do their duty by Malconaire and running away would not have been his solution. "It doesn't matter. He's not here."

Hmm.

As unaffected as Brigit tried to seem by this point, it was at this moment she urged Feidlimid forward as though she could outrun these thoughts. But what she couldn't outrun, was the images of the village as it came closer and closer into the view: the inhabitants she'd known all of her life -- the very ones she'd risked her own life to help protect.

Feidlimid was right, wasn't he? Eithne was right. Malconaire must come first.

Suddenly, all of Brigit's anger felt useless. What else could they do? Was there no other way to save both Eithne and the people of Malconaire?

It was slow ride back to the house: the sun had started to set by the time it had come into view. After she'd dismounted Feidlimid and led him back into the stables, she spent the next hour anxiously pacing -- still dreading the inevitable return to the house. She knew it would not be wise for her to see Cassimir, just now.

In her mind, she was turning over this problem seeking any solution to it and short of Cassimir and Valentina both conveniently dying, she couldn't seem to figure it out. She'd been waiting for Cillian to come back from gods knew where -- if anyone could offer some assistance in this, it was him.

But he was not here and Brigit felt both alone and helpless.

She didn't know how long she'd been there before she finally saw Cillian make his way up the road: a torch in his hand to light the way in the darkness.

"Where on earth have you been?" She called, arms crossed tightly across her chest. It was only now that she realized that she had been crying silent tears and she quickly wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand so Cillian would not see. Brigit had not cried since her father died and only then when no one else could see. She was grateful for the cover of darkness in this particular moment.

"Cassimir has asked Eithne to marry him." She announced when he came closer.

Cassimir has asked Eithne to marry him and I don't know what to do.

"Cillian, she's said yes."

[icharchivist]

I guess there's poetry to Lucilius being this desirable while also being the most aroace person to ever exist (in my HC anyway. Just like Lucifer is the most gay and Belial is the most bi. You understand)

Like. It does not benefit.him. all these people drooling over him and he just wants to dissect people in peace. Who are all these people in his dms. Leave him alone

GOD yeah.

Like i definitely fully read Lucilius as AroAce but the fact he's the most desired man of the franchise he's in really just doesn't help for that. He's so AroAce that the one person who loves him the most is the most Hyper-sexual Hyper-romantic person of the whole skies. Poor man.

Like i do feel bad for him!!! Mofo just want to be left alone and do his experiments in peace!! bodies should just be for science!!! why the fuck do you want to insert a dick in a body when you can insert a scalpel!!!

it's hysterical. It's poetic in a sense of just how much of this saga is built on looking for the love of an absent God and how much Lucilius himself stands as this unloving figure in general.

But it's a trip. I do feel bad for Lucilius in this situation like come on. Let a man just rest. and commit his own type of atrocities. god forbid an aroace do anything.

[singsweetmelodies]

alright anons

[yourfaveisamuppet]

my absolute number 1 rule for not spreading misinformation and dogwhistles on the internet is if a post mentions a "they" and does not explicitly and clearly state who "they" are, you don't share it. unfortunately every day i see this rule broken. do better.

[thecherrygod]

/

[hildannette]

i love to come up with a new p3 headcanon and tell it to my friends who have not played the game yet so they can instantly agree with it and adopt it as their personal canon, completely biasing their experience for when they do play